To Circumcise or Not to Circumcise, That is the Question

Never known as the most conventional of places, California has long been home to many things, Arnold, the Haight-Ashbury movement and many bead and head shops. Most recently, it’s been home to a movement to ban male circumcision in San Francisco. “It’s barbaric!” the founders of the movement claim. “Let the lads decide for themselves when they are adults!”

If that were the case, then many men would probably rather commit harry carry. Started by Lloyd Schofield, the movement is the latest tact in a string of anti-Semitic assaults, as other ways have backfired.

“No one has the right to cut off another part of another person’s body without their consent,” said Matthew Hess, one of the supporters of the movement, and the author of a virulently anti-Semitic comic, “Foreskin Man.” The comic features a dark-haired villain, named “Monster Mohel,” and the save-the-world hero, the fair-haired and muscular, “Foreskin Man.”

Had Schofield et al done their homework, they would have known that practice has been around for four thousand years and hasn’t hurt us Jews one bit, as we have excelled in science, medicine and literature without anyone ever complaining about that owie. My great-great grandfather, Velvel Koragodsky, fathered eleven children. His grandson, Yakir, four. My own father had two, and as we were girls, he would sometimes go outside and kick a football around with the boy who lived next door, so it didn’t appear to have hurt him much, either.

I’ve also met men who converted to Judaism. One lives in Israel and has six children and seven grandchildren and said he has nothing to complain about family-wise. The other already circumcised, chose to redo himself, which he later admitted wasn’t the smartest idea. It didn’t negatively impact either one a bit even as adults.

Lo and behold, research has shown that it is actually healthier. A study found that Jewish women have less cervical cancer than other woman, and it’s because of that. There is also less opportunity for infection, and according to one man not having that extra baggage makes him a better partner. Also, there has to be a reason as to why Jewish men seldom rape. My theory is that there is more fun in the seduction, though others say that the memory never completely fades and that circumcised men are in better control of themselves.

So Schoefield and his goose stepping crew are going to have to try something else. Maybe they can try turning Friday night Sabbath candle lighting into a city-ordinance fire hazard or go after the non-dairy butter used in kosher bakeries. If they want to go international, they can fly to Afghanistan and start their movement over there, since Muslim men also have the same procedure. I’d love to hear what happens to them once they do.

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. . . . . . . . . . .I’m happy to add the perspective of a Jewish Intactivist. There is a growing number of Jews of all denominations who are refusing to circumcision and instead doing alternative rituals that honor our religion without harming children.

I just don’t think that this is going to go away, especially not after 4,000 years. You may think it harms children, but I have never heard anyone complain. There are also the health benefits to consider, and last but not least, I wonder if the practice has something to do with the fact that few Jewish men are rapists, Perhapsthe art is in the seduction? On that one, I don’t know… Thanks for commenting.